When talking to Indians about Krsna, a very common argument or question is about the story of the Keśa-avatāra, supposedly narrated in the Vishnu Purana, as well as the Mahabharata and Srimad Bhagavatam that describes Krsna and Balarama as incarnations of two hairs of Lord Vishnu, one black and one white. How to deal with that?
It’s interesting that this interpretation was an important point of the instructions of Lord Caitanya to Srila Sanatana Goswami (CC Madhya 23.117-118):
“Illusory stories opposed to the conclusions of Kṛṣṇa consciousness concern the destruction of the Yadu dynasty, Kṛṣṇa’s disappearance, the story that Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma arise from a black hair and a white hair of Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, and the story about the kidnapping of the queens. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu explained to Sanātana Gosvāmī the proper conclusions of these stories.”
Here, four stories that are commonly used to question the position of Krsna are mentioned. Lord Caitanya directly instructed Srila Sanatana Goswami on the real meaning of these stories, so spurious interpretations could be defeated.
In his purport, Srila Prabhupada mentions that:
“Some of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes are mentioned in the Mahābhārata as mauṣala-līlā. These include the stories of the destruction of the Yadu dynasty, Kṛṣṇa’s disappearance, His being pierced by a hunter’s arrow, the story of Kṛṣṇa’s being an incarnation of a piece of hair (keśa-avatāra) as well as mahiṣī-haraṇa, the kidnapping of Kṛṣṇa’s queens. Actually these are not factual but are related for the bewilderment of the asuras, who want to prove that Kṛṣṇa is an ordinary human being. They are false in the sense that these pastimes are not eternal, nor are they transcendental or spiritual. There are many people who are by nature averse to the supremacy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu. Such people are called asuras. They have mistaken ideas about Kṛṣṇa. As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, the asuras are given a chance to forget Kṛṣṇa more and more, birth after birth. Thus they make their appearance in a family of asuras and continue this process, being kept in bewilderment about Kṛṣṇa. Asuras in the dress of sannyāsīs even explain the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in different ways according to their own imaginations. Thus they continue to remain asuras birth after birth.”
The story of Krsna passing away by the arrow of the hunter and the disappearance of the Yadu Dynasty are pastimes that Krsna deliberately performs to bewilder the atheists, who have them an excuse to not accept the transcendental nature of Krsna if they so desire. Krsna always respects the free will of the souls, and therefore although He comes personally and shows His power by killing so many demons, showing his Universal Form, and holding Govardhana Hill with just one finger, he also plays the pastimes of His disappearance, as well as the disappearance of the Yadhu Dynasty to leave a small margin for atheists who still want to not believe Him.
The pastime of the cowherds defeating Arjuna and kidnaping the wives of Krsna was in turn performed to fulfill the curse that the queens received in their previous lives as celestial girls, that they would be kidnapped after attaining Krsna as their husband. The cowherds were actually expansions of Krsna, who came to take His own wives. The proof of that was that they could easily defeat Arjuna, who was the most powerful warrior of his time. It would be ridiculous to imagine that regular cowherds could defeat someone who held his own even against Lord Shiva.
We come then to the pastime of the black hair. How to refute the idea that Krsna is an avatar of Vishnu?
The story is that Lord Viṣṇu snatched two hairs — one white and one black — from His head. These two hairs entered the wombs of Rohiṇī and Devakī, leading to the births of Balarama and Krsna.
This story is based on an interpretation of three verses, from the Vishnu Purana, the Mahabharata, and Srimad Bhagavatam.
The central idea is that in the three verses, there is mention of the words Krsna and Kesah. The proponents of the idea that Krsna is an avatar of Vishnu interpret the words as meaning that Krsna appeared from the hair, but Srila Rupa Goswami in the Laghu Bhagavatamrta (Kṛṣṇāmṛta, 156-164), supported by the commentary of Srila Baladeva Vidhyabhusana, as well as Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī in the Kṛṣṇa-sandarbha (29), defeat this idea by giving the correct meaning of the words, meaning that Krsna has beautiful hair.
In the Srimad Bhagavatam 2.7.26, for example, it’s stated:
bhūmeḥ suretara-varūtha-vimarditāyāḥ
kleśa-vyayāya kalayā sita-kṛṣṇa-keśaḥ
jātaḥ kariṣyati janānupalakṣya-mārgaḥ
karmāṇi cātma-mahimopanibandhanāni
The supporters of the Krsna as an avatar of Vishnu interpret the words “sita-kṛṣṇa-keśaḥ jātaḥ” as “a portion of Viṣṇu, being born of white and black hair”, while the correct interpretation, given by Rupa Goswami is “the Lord, with beautiful black hair, descends with His plenary portion.” (the plenary portion being Lord Balarama, Kṛṣṇa’s immediate expansion).
The mistaken interpretations thus go like this: “When the world is overburdened by the fighting strength of kings who have no faith in God, just to diminish the distress of the world, a black and white hair of the Lord incarnate on the earth. To expand His transcendental glories the Lord acts extraordinarily. No one can properly estimate how great He is.”
However, the correct meaning of the verse is:
“When the world is overburdened by the fighting strength of kings who have no faith in God, the Lord, just to diminish the distress of the world, with beautiful black hair, descends with His plenary portion. And just to expand His transcendental glories, He acts extraordinarily. No one can properly estimate how great He is.”
Similarly, in the Mahabharata (1.189.31) states:
sa cāpi keśau harir udvavarhe śuklam ekam aparañcāpi kṛṣṇam tau cāpi keśāvāviśatāṁ yadunāṁ kule striyau rohiṇīṁ devakīṁ ca tayor eko balabhadro babhūva ya ’sau śvetas tasya devasya keśaḥ kṛṣno dvitīyaḥ keśavaḥ saṁbabhūva keśo ’sau varṇitaḥ kṛṣṇa uktaḥ
This is often interpreted as “Viṣṇu took two hairs, one white and black. These two hairs entered the wombs of Rohiṇī and Devakī in the Yadu family. The white hair became Balarāma and the black hair became Kṛṣṇa.”
However, Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana explains that the correct meaning of this verse is that “The black and white rays of Kṣīrodakaśāyī entered Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma situated in Devakī and Rohiṇī.”
He explains that the correct meaning of the word “kesa” in this verse (as well as in many other verses) is not “hair”, but “rays”. This reveals the correct meaning of the verse, which is that Lord Vishnu (being an Amsa of Krsna enters into Krsna, as well as Balarama when they come to this word). This is supported by many other verses that explain that all the different forms and incarnations merge into Krsna’s body when He comes to display His pastimes.
The correct meaning is thus that Lord Vishnu is an Amsa or a plenary partial expansion of Krsna, and He merges into His body when He comes to display His pastimes. When svayam bhagavān appears, all of his aṁśa forms enter him as well.
Similarly, the Vishnu Purana states:
ujjaharatmanah keshau
sita-krishnau maha-mune
This is often translated as: “O great sage, Lord Vishnu then plucked a white and black hair from His own transcendental body, and these two hairs became His incarnations known as Balarama and Krishna.”
The word “keshau” in the first line consists of the two words “ka” and “ishau”. “Ka” means “blissful” and “ishau” means the two Personalities of Godhead. In the second line, the word “sita” indicates Lord Balarama.
The correct meaning of the verse is thus: “O great sage, The blissful Personality of Godhead, in His splendid original forms as Balarama and Krishna, relieved the burden of the earth.”
Apart from the correct Sanskrit meanings, or acaryas also point out that many other verses in the scriptures (starting with “krishnas tu bhagavan svayam” or “Krsna is the Original Personality of Godhead”, from the Srimad Bhagavatam) direct state that Krsna is the original personality of Godhead. When these three verses are interpreted in the sense of Krsna being the incarnation of the hair, a contradiction is artificially created.
Another argument is that Lord Vishnu is not subjected to old age like us. After a certain age, a man starts to have both white and black hairs, and eventually, all the hairs turn white, but this doesn’t apply to Lord Vishnu (not even the demigods have white hair). Therefore, the version that the above-mentioned words apply to the hairs of Lord Vishnu is not very plausible. The explanations given by Srila Rupa Goswami, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, and Srila Baladeva Vidhyabhusana as well as other acaryas make much more sense.
When Krsna and Balarama, the Lords with beautiful hair come to this world to perform their activities, all the expansions merge into their bodies, including Lord Vishnu, Who merges unto them in the form of white and black rays.
We can see that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu considered this an important question, and thus gave to the Six Goswamis the mission of defeating these misinterpretations and establishing the correct conclusions. This point is now still quite relevant, so we should all be familiar with these explanations.